\Weird Al\" Yankovic" Parodies What was he known for? Yankovic is well known for creating parodies of contemporary radio hits, typically which make up about half of his studio releases. Name one of his parodies Yankovic's parody of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", What other parodies did he do Yankovic considered that his first true satirical song was "Smells Like Nirvana",
What else was good about his parodies
Besides Smells Like Nirvana, what else was good about Weird Al Yankovic's parodies?
Yankovic is well known for creating parodies of contemporary radio hits, typically which make up about half of his studio releases. Unlike other parody artists such as Allan Sherman, Yankovic and his band strive to keep the backing music in his parodies the same as the original, transcribing the original song by ear and re-recording the song for the parody. In some cases, in requesting the original band to allow for his parody, the band will offer to help out with the recreation: Dire Straits members Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher perform on "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", Yankovic's parody of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", while Imagine Dragons provided Yankovic with advice on how to recreate some of the electronic sounds they used for "Radioactive" in Yankovic's parody "Inactive". Yankovic's career in novelty and comedy music has outlasted many of his "mainstream" parody targets, such as Toni Basil, MC Hammer, and Men Without Hats. Yankovic's continued success (including the top 10 single "White & Nerdy" and album Straight Outta Lynwood in 2006) has enabled him to escape the one-hit wonder stigma often associated with novelty music.  Although many of Yankovic's songs are parodies of contemporary radio hits, it is rare that the song's primary topic lampoons the original artist as a person, or the song itself. Most Yankovic songs consist of the original song's music, with a separate, unrelated set of amusing lyrics. Yankovic's humor normally lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content (such as the songs "Amish Paradise", "White & Nerdy", and "You're Pitiful"), or in pointing out trends or works which have become pop culture cliches (such as "eBay" and "Don't Download This Song"). Yankovic's parodies are often satirical of popular culture, including television (see The TV Album), movies ("The Saga Begins"), and food (see The Food Album). Yankovic claims he has no intention of writing "serious" music. In his reasoning, "There's enough people that do unfunny music. I'll leave the serious stuff to Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline."  Yankovic considered that his first true satirical song was "Smells Like Nirvana", which references unintelligible lyrics in Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Other satirical songs include "Achy Breaky Song", which refers to the song "Achy Breaky Heart", "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long", which refers to the repetitious lyrics in "Got My Mind Set on You", and "Perform This Way", set to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" that drew inspiration from Lady Gaga's outlandish but confident attitude.  Yankovic is the sole writer for all his songs and, for "legal and personal reasons", does not accept parody submissions or ideas from fans. There exists, however, one exception to this rule: Madonna was reportedly talking with a friend and happened to wonder aloud when Yankovic was going to turn her "Like a Virgin" into "Like a Surgeon". Madonna's friend was a mutual friend of Yankovic's manager, Jay Levey, and eventually Yankovic himself heard the story from Levey. CANNOTANSWER
Yankovic's humor normally lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content (
Movies in Fifteen Minutes (known as m15m for short) is primarily the name of a set of Internet-based movie parodies by Cleolinda Jones (a pen name). The parodies first appeared in 2004 on Jones' LiveJournal, but have now been moved to a LiveJournal community of their own.  There have been no new entries since 2012.

Background
Jones wrote the first parody, Van Helsing in Fifteen Minutes, for fun; it appeared on her personal blog on 9 May 2004.  Van Helsing in Fifteen Minutes proved surprisingly popular with readers on the internet.  Jones' blog became so popular because of the m15m that she ran out of space for members, so she created a community for the parodies that would accept more members; she then posted subsequent movie parodies in this community.

Book

In 2004, Jones was asked by British publishing company Orion Books if she was interested in writing a book of the parodies. She was, and the book, Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Hollywood Blockbusters For People Who Can't Be Bothered was released in October 2005. It contains "the ten biggest movies ever," parodies not published online. The book is not currently available in the United States, though it has been published in Europe, where it met with praise.

Characteristics
The parodies, written in the style of a screenplay, have a wide appeal, at once scathing and affectionate, with plenty of references to pop culture, Internet fan culture, movie trivia, and just about anything else. Font sizes and punctuation are used inventively (perhaps most memorably in The Matrix in Fifteen Minutes).

Jokes are made at the expense of plot holes, inconsistent character arcs, and bad dialogue amongst other things. The world of Internet fanfiction is also made fun of, with Jones making straight-faced, ridiculous claims about the characters even wilder than those made by the fanfic authors themselves.

Popularity
The parodies are popular on the Livejournal site especially, despite being famous Internet-wide. This has caused various other people to write their own parodies, sometimes under the "Movies in Fifteen Minutes" name. Jones is the owner of the trademark ("Movies in Fifteen Minutes") under the common laws of the United States, and has said she is not comfortable with people using the name for their own parodies.

References

Further reading

External links
 Movies in Fifteen Minutes

Parodies of films
Books about films
British comedy websites
Works published under a pseudonym João de Sá (fl. 1524–1567), known as Panasco (a nickname that meant rudeness as revealed by clothes or manners), was a black African in the employ of King John III of Portugal, who was eventually elevated from court jester to gentleman courtier of the Royal Household.

Celebrated as a very spirited man, he began his career as a court jester, entertaining both the King and Queen Catherine with witty jokes and parodies. Even though he enjoyed the King's protection, João de Sá received constant racist abuse. His "inferior condition", undoubtedly a result of his initial condition as a slave, was frequently brought up by other courtiers. He could do, however, what was not allowed to anyone else: mock the nobility with impunity. His status as simultaneously an outsider and insider made him an invaluable informer to the King.

In 1535, he accompanied the King's brother, Infante Luís, Duke of Beja, to northern Africa, where he was part of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's military campaign to conquer Tunis from the Ottomans. The important victory over the Turks made the King of Portugal award João de Sá exceptional honours: he was eventually admitted to the prestigious Order of Saint James.

References

16th-century Portuguese people
Portuguese slaves
Jesters
Portuguese courtiers
Knights of the Order of Saint James of the Sword
Portuguese people of African descent
16th-century slaves "Someone Else's Eyes" is a 2009 song by French singer Amanda Lear and Italian singer Deadstar. It was released by the independent label Just Good Music for Your Ears as the lead single from Lear's album Brief Encounters.

Song information 
"Someone Else's Eyes" is a vocal duet between Lear and Enrico Petrelli, better known under his stage name Deadstar, who has also written and produced the track. It is a mid-tempo pop song with jazz elements, arranged by Nerio Poggi, including a saxophone solo by Fabio Tullio. The lyrics of the song, also written by Deadstar, tell about a relationship breakup.

Amanda Lear and Deadstar met in summer 2008 – their first meeting took place in a café in the 16th arrondissement of Paris where they both live. They started recording the song in November that year in Rome and Paris. The track was then previewed at Midem in 2009 to positive reaction and subsequently chosen as the lead single from Lear's album Brief Encounters. It was released through Deadstar's own independent label Just Good Music for Your Ears, also including the ballad "Secret Lover". A limited edition of the single was released with copies of one of Amanda's sketches that she did during recording sessions. The song was then remixed by Boy George and Kinky Roland, and released as a maxi single on 24 May 2010 to promote the reissue Brief Encounters Reloaded. A remix of "Doin' Fine" was included as a bonus track.

Music video 
The official music video for the track was filmed in April 2009 in Rome, Italy by Fabio Tibaldi at Studio 154. It pictures Amanda Lear and Deadstar performing the song in front of a white background. A video for the Boy George/Kinky Roland remix was also made in 2010.

Track listing 
CD Single (2009)
 "Someone Else's Eyes" – 4:08
 "Secret Lover" – 2:03
video: "Someone Else's Eyes" – 4:08

CD Promo Single (2009)
 "Someone Else's Eyes" (Radio Edit) – 2:54
 "Someone Else's Eyes" (All Eyes on the Dance Floor Remix Radio Edit) – 3:31

CD Maxi Single (2010)
 "Someone Else's Eyes" (Boy George & Kinky Roland Mix) – 5:50
 "Someone Else's Eyes" (All Eyes on the Dance Floor Mix) – 6:45
 "Someone Else's Eyes" (Visionary Mix) – 4:05
 "Someone Else's Eyes" (Fully Loaded NRG Mix) – 7:33
 "Doin' Fine" (Devil's Desire Radio Mix) – 3:36

References 

Songs about eyes
2009 singles
2009 songs
Amanda Lear songs
Vocal duets